Publication

Publication

Glorious Days: Australia 1913

The year 1913 was a fascinating and important time for Australians, although the events of the following year have tended to cast a retrospective shadow over it.

In places as far apart as Antarctica, Papua and Great Britain, Australian ambitions were high; the new navy was a source of national pride; the arts flourished and the motor car and movies were having their first impacts.

The political landscape and the lives of working men and women were rapidly changing, and the foundation stone for the new capital was laid.

This richly illustrated book takes the reader into life in Australia in 1913, from the experiences of ordinary Australians, to the emerging place of this new nation in the world.

Seventeen fascinating essays look at the political landscape, the fashions, the music, the art and the events that defined the year.

Glorious Days: Australia 1913 was edited by Michelle Hetheringon, Senior Curator at the National Museum of Australia. The book explores the inauguration of Canberra, the exploration of Antarctica, ongoing tensions between the states and the experiences of Aboriginal Australians, for whom 1913 was far from glorious as governments sought to impose greater control over their lives.

'This book is an in-depth look at life in Australia a century ago. Readers will get a real sense of how we have changed – but equally, how we are still grappling with the same ideas and issues as our ancestors of that fascinating period,' says Andrew Sayers, Director of the National Museum of Australia.

ISBN 9781921953064. National Museum of Australia press; full colour. Published March 2013. $44.95.

Cover image: Australian actress Louise Carbasse, about 1913. Photograph by Rudolph Buchner. Dickson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales PI/304.

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Contents

Australia in the World by Nicholas Brown
In Antarctica by Tom Griffiths
Dreams of Empire by Anna Edmundson
'Gone to Navy': Defending Australia by Peter Stanley

Part two: Land of Opportunity

The Political Landscape by Stuart Macintyre
Capital by Humphrey McQueen
Canberra 1913 by Nicholas Brown
Aboriginal People and their Children by Maria Nugent
Women in White Australia by Raelene Frances
A Working Man's Paradise? by Frank Bongiorno
Domestic Environments by Peter McNeil

Part three: Life in Edwardian Australia

Leisure Time by Jill Julius Matthews
Art and Artists by Andrew Sayers
Spencer at Oenpelli by Howard Morphy
The State of Photography by Helen Ennis
The Year in Music by Roger Neill
Adulation, Fame and Money by Guy Hansen